A VARIETY of businesses got a chance to increase visibility of their products and services when the Rotaract Club of Georgetown held a Business Expo and Tea Party on Saturday.

President of the Rotaract Club, Kimberly Manbodh, said the club’s Professional Development and Community Service Committee saw the importance of spotlighting small businesses which were birthed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the exhibitors who spoke with the Guyana Chronicle said they were very excited to participate in the event.

Zoya Samaroo, owner of Coriolis, a jewellery business, shared that she is an aspiring marine biologist and her business started from her cleaning the beaches of Guyana.

“Basically, the whole idea is to clean up the beach, utilise the sea glass which are glass bottles that are more or less littered on the beach,” she said.

Samaroo said that the sand and waves smooth the glass over, so they become frosty-looking.

“I spend a lot of time on the beach and at times I would often see the glass and pick them up because they would look so pretty and I had a whole lot of them in a jar and didn’t know what to do with them, so I went home and I researched how to utilise them to create something and that’s how I ended up doing my first set of jewellery,” Samaroo shared.

She noted that she started making jewellery out of the sea glass for friends and then persons started ordering from her, so she decided during the pandemic that she should make a business out of it.

Samaroo, 22, is currently pursuing a Masters in Marine Biology. She is on a scholarship studying in China virtually and is hoping that after the COVID restrictions are lifted, she gets to go to China.

Xavier Ragnauth and Tammy Walker of Walker’s Pie Company also spoke with the Guyana Chronicle. Ragnauth shared that they started up their business in June 2021.

“It has been relatively smooth sailing given the pandemic, but you know we are hanging in there and taking part in all of these events because it helps us meet new people and interact a lot more,” Ragnauth said.

Tammy, his girlfriend, decided one Christmas that she wanted to bake an apple pie and so she tried it and it came out great, so they were thinking about making it a business.

“We got some pushing from her cousin abroad who is a trained chef and he was like, you should go for it. He sends us over the boxes and the stickers and stamps which basically is a huge attraction for us because everybody loves our packaging,” he said.

Another jewellery maker, Matoya Grant of Magelegance, shared that she has been making jewellery since she graduated from high school.

“I’ve been making jewellery since I came out of school and I started the business back in 2016. I’m 35,” said Grant.

Grant lives in Linden but operates in Kitty. She said that her store is mostly online and that she imports semi-precious stones, but she uses local stones as well
“I have the imported semi-precious stones and I also have a Guyanese collection. So, all the stones in the Guyanese collection, they are mined locally here in Guyana and I use them and make jewellery with them and they will be made available very soon at the UncappeD Marketplace,” Grant said.